I have to hand it to Nintendo: they have not forgotten some of their games, even when all their fans are long gone. On the Switch, several series came to life, and in December the half-forgotten Big Brain Academy came back to life. Even I barely remember the original Big Brain Academy coming out on Nintendo DS back in 2005, and then its sequel on Wii in 2007. And since then, silence. So yes, the release of Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is quite a surprise. But in the meantime, a new generation has already grown up. Will they be interested?
Because of the title, Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain might be confused with the sequel to Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training for Nintendo Switch, but no, they’re different things, and not at all. While the latter is aimed at adults, Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain is more relaxed in nature, aiming for the competitive aspect. I’ll say right away that although I wasn’t expecting it at all, I got a lot more out of it than I thought I would. I apologize to Dr. Kawashima, but his game does not stand up to comparison. At least not to me.
So, what is it? When you turn on Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain, the game immediately lets you know not to get nervous. Fun music is playing, and ridiculous characters and bright colors are looking at us from the screen. Despite the fact that there’s both single player and multiplayer modes, I immediately rushed to master the latter, because… this is a Nintendo game. Modes for two (or more) are always more fun.
I was right: Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain doesn’t need tutorials or explanations. All you have to do is pick your players and spin a drum that randomly selects one of 20 puzzles. Yes, to put it even more simply, we’re looking at yet another compilation of mini-games, of which there’s already plenty on Switch. Last year we praised Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, and this year we told you about WarioWare: Get It Together and Mario Party Superstars.
In terms of accessibility, Brain vs. Brain can’t be beaten, and there are several reasons for that. First – all the puzzles are clear before the game starts, and none of them requires any video game experience, that is, everyone will be satisfied. It helps and quite unique opportunity to set the difficulty for each player separately, that is, compete with each other can be a variety of people of different ages, including pre-schoolers. This kind of inclusivity pleases. Second – the game is fully translated into Russian, which is very important, when everyone has to think at the same speed.
There are 20 mini-games in total, which are puzzles of different levels of difficulty. The variety is really nice: somewhere you’ll have to count, somewhere you’ll have to guess the content of the picture by little pieces. There are puzzles for intelligence, memory and logic, and if any of these you can not do, you can always get even in another game, the fact that there are many categories.
The gameplay is simple: in one “match” you can go through up to five mini-games. Everything is decided by your wits and reaction speed: a certain amount of time is given to one puzzle, and the faster you answer (correctly), the more points you get. At the end of all minigames Brain vs. Brain announces the winner.
As is always the case, not all modes are equally good, although it’s very difficult to remain objective here. I will try, however, and say that in some places the controls leave much to be desired, and, for example, the analog Joy-Con stick often forces you to make wrong presses. This is especially noticeable in the game where you have to move the hands of the clock, and where reaction speed decides everything – despite enough experience, I very often made accidental presses and chose the wrong answer.
Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain
Some games are very simple, but some straight up mocked me. As a hardened humanist, I tried to avoid math problems, but you can’t spin the wheel more than twice per turn.
In any game, the most important thing is the degree of fanfare, and even though I’m not the target audience for Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain, I wasn’t bored even once. The only thing I care about is how engaging it is for you. This isn’t Wii Bowling or even Game & Wario, where you can play a couple of mini-games endlessly: it’s most interesting here in the beginning, when the puzzles are fresh. But when you’ve already seen everything, guessing a picture of a giraffe or a zebra gets boring, because we know everything by the first pixel. Of course, not all minigames will get old quickly, but I suspect that the initial effect will begin to wane after ten hours. What’s more: if you have a dozen hours of play under your belt and your guests have zero, it’s hard for me to foresee how they’ll be able to give you a serious fight.
Verdict
I wasn’t expecting anything from Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain and was pleasantly surprised. The price, because it’s cheaper than the vast majority of Nintendo exclusives. The content, which turned out to be more engaging and accessible than it seemed, and the localization, which is mostly lacking.